UALfa@jfk, the N and compass were indeed meant to be simultaneous with the W. I remember when this logo was first introduced in the late 80's or early 90's and reading about how the design firm ( I can't recall who) called it one of the most intelligent logos in the industry and how the N and arrow formed a W and a compass point to the NW. You have to admit, it is pretty clever. You can't really believe that was an accident can you?

One more thing about the NW logo: I heard that the circle around it stands for "O" which reminds us that the airline used to be called "Northwest Orient". So it really is an intelligent logo, isn´t it?

Alaska Airlines. Some of you may not remember this, but prior to about 1975, Alaska had many different logo's on their tail besides the smiling eskimo. I remember that one was a totem pole. I dont remember all of their tail symbols though. Anyone?

Northwest´s clever and simple logo in the upper corner of the red tail. Compared to it every other North-American airline-logo is either getting old, is to plain or not unique enough. Second is Air Canada´s beautiful maple leaf.